City of Amarillo proposes $300 million Civic Center renovation

By Douglas ClarkAmarillo Globe-News

Wednesday

Sep 4, 2019 at 5:01 PM

As a means of addressing challenges that exist with a facility built in 1968, on Wednesday city officials unveiled a $300 million Civic Center renovation proposal they said would include convention center expansion, a new arena and additional parking.

"As we project it, the total cost of the project is somewhere in the range of $319 million," Assistant City Manager Kevin Starbuck said during an information session at the Civic Center. "From that we estimate the Civic Center renovation, the Convention Center expansion, the addition of a new arena and the additional parking required to support the facility costs about $291 million as part of the total project cost. We also have a new central plaza in the downtown area - a four-acre area that would accommodate 1,700 people in an outdoor environment for concerts and other gatherings."

Starbuck said the concept is not new and conversations have been ongoing internally for the last eight years. The endeavor would require the relocation of City Hall to an existing building in the downtown area, per officials, and the relocation of City Hall, renovation of the Santa Fe Depot and infrastructure improvements to support the entire project would cost an additional $28 million.

"What we are proposing is this will go to voters as a property tax supported bond issue," he said. "At the current time we are focusing on looking at a May 2020 election that would be presented to voters with a $279 million bond. We are looking to present that to them, with the city council's approval, that will result in over a 30-year term, a 15.1 cents increase on property taxes that equates to $150 a year or $12.57 a month for a $100,000 valuation."

Officials said a series of public feedback forums are slated in the Amarillo Civic Center Hospitality Room (Entrance 7) on the following dates:

• Sept. 14 - 8:30 a.m.

• Sept. 19 - 1 p.m.

• Sept. 19 - 5:30 p.m.

• Sept. 21 - 8:30 a.m.

"This truly is an opportunity for our community to engage us in a conversation about the concept we are presenting today about how we can build for the future of our Civic Center for the next 50 years," he said. "This has not been a new concept. We have started this conversation internally for the last eight years. Previous city councils, previous management came together and recognized our Civic Center was at that point in time where we needed to have a better grasp of where we're going in the next 50 years."

Starbuck said the Civic Center has served the city well since 1968, but there are challenges that currently exist.

"While we have done a number of things to maintain it and grow it to try and stay current - there are certain realities we cannot address within the current structure," he said. "For example, the current Coliseum has a steel height of 38-foot, 9-inches. The industry standard is 60-foot. That is something we simply cannot change. There is no way for us to go in there physically, raise the ceiling and meet that new standard."

The facilities within the exhibit space are broken up with several smaller convention center spaces, per Starbuck, creating what he deemed an awkward flow for people attending an event and he said concessions capabilities are also limited in scope.

"With our plan, as we are proposing it, we would do a renovation of the entire Civic Center facility, giving every aspect of it a facelift," he said. "Through that we will also be creating new prefunction area in the front, with a main entrance to the Convention Center site, which would open up to a 75,000-square-foot convention site that would allow for shows to have one continuous area where they can cast the entire vision for their conference or convention."

Starbuck said there would also be meeting rooms in various areas of existing space more configurable to meeting the demands of leasees, as a well as a new ballroom space that would grow the existing Regency Room from 20,000-square-feet to 30,000-square-feet to meet the requests of leasees. Kitchen areas would support caterers and internal concessions and there would be the creation of a new lobby area leading into the 10,000-seat arena.

Officials said at the beginning of this year the Amarillo City Council announced the formulation of a five-member citizen executive committee charged with gathering information and embarking on a fact finding mission to form the framework for the Amarillo Civic Center's future. The executive committee is composed of the following persons:

• Jennifer Gallardo, North Branch Manager, Amarillo National Bank

• David Lovejoy, KGNC radio journalist and Amarillo Branch NAACP Vice President

• Rod Schroder, former Amarillo Independent School District Superintendent of Schools

• Mike Hughes, local businessman - medical services

• Julie Sims, Amarillo resident and community volunteer

Lovejoy said it is time to take action regarding the endeavor.

"As we've seen with Hodgetown, it's about the experience - not so much the event," he said. "This Civic Center is lacking amenities, we have to address that and investment now will pay off in the future. To have this project and redo the Civic Center will ensure us of another 50 years of being the great community we are."

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